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Alberta Lawyer News

Calgary immigration lawyer asks CBSA to be humane to client

Bjorn Harsanyi, an immigration lawyer in Calgary, is asking the Canada Border Service Agency (CBSA) to help his client, Aida Castilla Romero, to return to her native country of Mexico by land.

Romero's work permit has expired and although she is willing to go home, she is afraid to get on a plane because she fears her lungs might collapse due to a rare disease that she has been diagnosed with.

Because of her health condition, Romero's lungs had collapsed a year after she came to Canada to work. While getting treatment, the terms of Romero's work permit ended. She was refused an extension and was denied a refugee status and eventually received a deportation order.

Cautioned by a doctor against flying as it would cause her lungs to collapse again; Romero through Harsanyi asked the CBSA to allow her to go back to Mexico by land. This, however, was denied too.

Harsanyi is appealing for the CBSA to help his client get a visa so she can travel to Mexico by land passing through the US as this is within the agency's capabilities.

There has been no word yet from the CBSA and Romero fears that she would be forced to board a plane when the deportation date arrives, least she would get arrested again which is what happened when her lawyer had informed the CBSA of her growing fears. They had deemed she would not get on her deportation flight.

Pastor nets jail for possessing child pornography

Posted Jun 18, 2015 on www.edmontonsun.com

Richard John Docekal, who used to be a pastor in Edmonton, will be spending six months in jail after he submitted a guilty plea to possession of child pornography.

The 59-year-old Docekal admitted to having a large collection of pornographic materials of drawings in cartoons depicting children having sexual relations with their parents.

Ed O'Neill, a lawyer in Edmonton defending for the disgraced pastor, said that his client has regretted his misdeed which resulted to him no longer serving as a pastor.

Docekal's marriage also became a casualty of his unsavory hobby and he was also subjected to public humiliation after his arrest landed on the front pages of the news, said the lawyer.

The pastor's penchant for the pornographic materials came to light after the woman with whom he had an affair blew the whistle on him.

Man to stay away from home every time there are children around

Posted Feb 13, 2015 on www.calgarysun.com

Miles Jarvis Clark should make sure that he is not home every time there are children around.

This after he was charged with sexual assault and sexual interference and is currently out on a bail while awaiting trial.

Clark's wife runs a daycare in their home from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and as part of his bail conditions, he is to stay away from home on those hours.

However, the Crown found out that the daycare actually opens as early as 6 a.m. so the conditions have been changed and that is Clark should stay away whenever there are children around in his home.

Calgary criminal lawyer Alain Hepner, defending for Clark, said that since the charges have been filed, there have been no children left at the daycare.

Hepner said they may be seeking more changes in the conditions of his client's bail such as that he may be permitted to stay in his home on his days off.

Clark was charged when in January, the parents of a boy, 4, complained to the police that their child have been sexually assaulted.

Nanny from the Philippines given chance to stay

Posted Feb 12, 2015 on www.cbc.ca

Teresita Seradilla was all set to go home to the Philippines after she has been asked by the Department of Citizenship and Immigration Canada to leave when she got a call which allows her to stay.

In the call, the Immigration department admitted its mistake which caused Seradilla her residency permit.

Seradilla was granted a caregiver visa, however, the proper process would have been she should have left Canada first before applying for the visa. This lapse surfaced when Seradilla applied for a residency permit.

The immigration department says it tries its best to right its wrongs.

Man pleads guilty to dangerous driving, hit-and-run

Posted Feb 03, 2015 on www.edmontonjournal.com

Brandon James Hudson submitted a guilty plea to several counts of dangerous driving causing bodily harm and hit-and-run in relation to an incident which happened in the afternoon of September 24 last year.

While high on drugs, Hudson had stolen his stepfather's sedan and drove through the streets inflicting injury to several people.

Hudson, however, could not remember anything that happened on that fateful day, according to Edmonton lawyer Anna Konye, who is defending him.

Hudson's atrocities did not stop when his very damaged vehicle refused to start, he tried to flee the police on foot and when he was finally detained, he attacked his cellmate.

The Crown prosecutor told the court that at the time of his arrest, Hudson was mumbling about people going after him and how he could not escape them.

A hearing for his sentencing has yet to be scheduled as Hudson has been ordered to go through a psychiatric exam.

Canada Lawyer News

Calgary immigration lawyer said it is not over for his client yet

Legal options have not run out for Imam Abdi Hersy despite losing his refugee protection status, according to Raj Sharma, the immigration lawyer from Calgary.

Sharma said that Hersy will be appealing the decision handed down by the Immigration and Refugee Board at the Federal Court.

The board's decision is in relation to the sexual charges that Hersy is facing in Minnesota, USA, where he used to work as a respiratory therapist in 2006.

At that time, Hersy came to Canada and successfully got himself protection as a refugee of Somalia.

The Canadian Border Services Agency, however, accused Hersy of mispresentation and worked on stripping him of his refugee status in 2013.

The agency succeeded but Hersy appealed his case to the Federal Court which sided with him.

Sharma said Hersy hopes for a repeat of that compassion that the Federal Court had shown him then.

Hersy had maintained his innocence against the sexual allegations and that issues with his immigration had kept him from proving he is not guilty.

Man refutes murder allegations

Posted Jun 29, 2015 on www.cbc.ca

Kevin Rubletz is denying that he had a hand in the death of his former girlfriend, Jessica Newman, whose body was found in May.

Newman was first reported missing in March before her body was found in a ditch.

Rubletz and Newman shared a child and had been reportedly locked in a custody battle.

Calgary criminal lawyer Brendan Miller is representing Rubletz, who is facing a second-degree murder in relation to Newman's death.

Miller said that he is still waiting for the disclosure from the Crown and that there is a possibility that his client will be seeking bail.

Frying pan death suspect mentally cleared to face trial

Posted Jun 26, 2015 on www.calgarysun.com

The trial for the 2012 death of Gatleak Thor Metkurjock will now proceed after the suspect has been declared as mentally fit to stand trial following a psychiatric assessment.

The suspect, who was 17 years old at the time of the incident, is facing second-degree murder charges for allegedly bashing Thor Metkurjock in the head with a frying pan.

At that time, Thor Metkurjock and the suspect was attending a house party. The victim had passed out drunk and was being brought out. He had woken up and was belligerent so the suspect allegedly got a frying pan and hit him with it.

Nepal citizens who are working in Canada on a temporary permit should be given a reprieve, according to Calgary immigration lawyer Raj Sharma.

Sharma said that the Canadian government should do something for the foreign workers from Nepal which recently suffered from a very strong earthquake.

The lawyer has proposed to have the foreign workers from Nepal be given permanent residency as some of them already had their permits expiring.

He said that a little less than 400 Nepalese are working in Canada under the temporary foreign worker program.

Sharma added that with the catastrophe, it will not be appropriate to be sending them back to Nepal.

National defence expresses desire to settle sex assault claims

Posted Mar 16, 2015 on www.vicnews.com

London litigator Phillip Millar and lawyers of the Justice Department are working together after the Department of National Defence said it wanted to settle the claims made by eight women who alleged they were sexually assaulted by the department's medical technician.

According to the victims, they were subjected to a breast examination wherein they were touched inappropriately by James Wilks.

Wilks had denied the claims of the women and that he had done the examinations according to the standard procedure.

In 2013, several women including four of the five who have filed a claim, brought their complaints against Wilks in a court martial wherein he was convicted for several counts of breach of trust and sexual assault. The military judge gave his nod to proof that the victims, all under 40, did not have to undergo the breast examination.

He was sentenced to two years and six months which he hasn't started serving yet because he has appealed the conviction.

It was not the first time that Wilks has been convicted by a court martial because in 2011, he was also handed a nine-month sentence after he was convicted of charges of the same nature.

Millar said his clients are happy that the National Defence wants to go for a settlement.